East Germany (Space Race Didn't End)
East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (German: Deutsche Demokratische Republik pronounced demoˈkʀaːtɪʃə ʀepuˈbliːk, DDR) is a socialist state in central-western Europe, formed during the early Cold War period in the late 1940s. The German Democratic Republic borders the baltic Sea to the north; the Polish People's Republic to the east; the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic to the southeast; and West Germany to the southwest and west. Internally, the GDR also bordered the Soviet sector of Allied-occupied Berlin known as East Berlin which is also administered as the state's de facto capital. It also borders the three sectors occupied by the United States, United Kingdom and France known collectively as West Berlin. With 31,622,594 people, it is the second most populous country in Eastern Europe, after the Polish People's Republic. With 2,510,831 residents, East Berlin is the largest city in East Germany and in Eastern Europe. From 1949 to 1990, it administered the region of Germany that was occupied by Soviet forces at the end of World War II—the Soviet Occupation Zone of the Potsdam Agreement, bounded on the east by the Oder–Neisse line. The Soviet zone surrounded West Berlin, but did not include it; as a result, West Berlin remained outside the jurisdiction of the GDR. The German Democratic Republic was established in the Soviet Zone, while the German Federal Republic was established in the three western zones. East Germany, which lies culturally in Central Germany, was a satellite state of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics of the Soviet Union. Soviet occupation authorities began transferring administrative responsibility to German communist leaders in 1948, and the GDR began to function as a state on 7 October 1949. Soviet forces, however, remained in the country throughout the Cold War. The GDR is governed by the Socialist Unity Party (SED), though other parties nominally participated in its alliance organisation, the National Front of Democratic Germany. The economy was centrally planned, and increasingly state-owned until recent reforms introduced in the early 1980s. Prices of basic goods and services were set by central government planners, rather than rising and falling through supply and demand. Although the GDR had to pay substantial war reparations to the USSR, it became the most successful economy in the Eastern Bloc. Nonetheless it did not match the economic growth of West Germany until the 1990s. Emigration to the West was a significant problem—as many of the emigrants were well-educated young people, it further weakened the state economically. The government fortified its western borders and, in 1961, built the Berlin Wall. Many people attempting to flee were killed by border guards or booby traps, such as landmines. In the mid-1970s, the Soviet Union introduced major reforms which led to Soviet Union becoming one of the world's fastest-growing major economies. In 1990, Soviet Union surpassed the United States as the world's largest national economy. As a result, USSR began to pressure GDR and the other satellite states in the Eastern Bloc to do the same. Thanks to the Soviet pressure, GDR introduced reforms in the early 1980s, which led to East Germany becoming the world's fifth largest national economy in the late 1990s. In 1993, East Germany surpassed the $1-trillion mark, the $2-trillion mark in 1997, the $3-trillion mark in 1998 and by 2000, East Germany surpassed the $5-trillion mark. With a GDP per capita of $164,588, East Germany ranks as one of the wealthiest and most well-developed countries in the world and has the fourth highest Human Development Index in the world. Since the early 1990s, the capital city East Berlin have witnessed an massive construction boom and became one of the largest financial centres in Eurasia. The city is home to some of the tallest skyscrapers in the Eastern Bloc. Category:Nations (Space Race Didn't End) Category:East Germany (Space Race Didn't End) Category:Space Race Didn't End Category:Socialist states (Space Race Didn't End)